Death Of The ‘Tax Haven’ Label?

The British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies should no longer be considered 'tax havens', according to UK prime minister David Cameron, but Fiona Le Poidevin of Guernsey Finance wonders whether this will be the death knell for that label.

The debate surrounding international finance centres (IFCs) at the G20 meeting in St Petersburg in September was largely overshadowed by discussions regarding the crisis in Syria (see my last blog preceding the summit: Lights, camera, action). This is not surprising given the gravity of the situation and even less so when we consider that the IFC debate didn't really unearth anything new.

The G20 leaders reiterated support for the OECD's action plan and road map on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) - what it describes as "legal tax avoidance" - and a global model for automatic exchange of information, the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, which is more directed at